As the right hand man of the ancient Chinese monarch, the prime minister can often influence the fate of a dynasty, and the prime minister has both Wei Zheng, who is like an iron-boned Zhengzheng who directly faces the advice, Zhang Juzheng, the master of the emperor and the general of the Ming Dynasty, and Wei Zheng, who is a disaster to the country and the people, and the seller seeks glory.
Therefore, whether a dynasty is corrupt or not, whether the people are stable or not, it all depends on what kind of person the prime minister is, and what I want to introduce today is the most famous prime minister in the Middle and Tang Dynasties, Lu Yan.
Born in 753 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Lu Yan was gifted and intelligent, and at the age of nineteen he was admitted to the meritorious title and became a jinshi in the eighth year of the Tang Dynasty Emperor's calendar (773). He was awarded the post of County Lieutenant of Zheng County. At that time, Zhang Yi, the assassin of Shouzhou, heard about Lu Zhen's talent and was very impressed after talking to him.
Zhang Yi saw that Lu Yan was poor and very clean, and he couldn't help but feel respect for him, and gave lu yi millions of dollars, but lu yan refused, but Lu Yan refused at all, but just accepted a bag of tea. This established his reputation for incorruptibility.
Lu Zhen's writing was very good, and later he was promoted to the position of inspector of imperial history, tang dezong heard about Lu Zhen's reputation when he was still the crown prince, so he appointed him as a Hanlin scholar, Lu Zhen was loyal in nature, felt the holy grace, and wanted to repay it, so he often consulted like Tang Dezong, and Tang Dezong treated Lu Zhen more kindly.
At that time, the imperial court wanted to do both affairs, a large number of edicts were drafted by Lu Zhen, Lu Zhen pen walked the dragon and snake, there was no unreasonable, Tang Dezong treated Lu Zhen, just like his own cronies, and discussed everything with him.
In the fourth year of Jianzhong, the Jingyuan army rebelled, supported the taiwei Zhu Zhu as emperor, the thieves were huge, and once occupied Chang'an, Lu Zhen and Dezhong went to Fengtian to avoid the chaos, the boat and car were laoten, the two established a deep affection in the war, at that time, on the way, the road to Liangzhou was difficult, Dezong and Lu Zhen were separated, and after not seeing each other overnight, the Dezhong were shocked and sad, so that they cried.
Later, Lu Zhencai and Tang Dezong joined forces, and Lu Zhen was able to get such a high value from Tang Dezong, in large part because of his loyalty and rich talent, coupled with Lu Zhen's incorruptibility.
According to the legal system of the Tang Dynasty, the salaries of officials were very meager, and later the Qing Dynasty set up the Yanglian Silver to prevent officials from embezzling, but the Tang Dynasty did not, if officials wanted to get more income, they had to enrich themselves, but Lu Yan had long hated this phenomenon.
Not only did he refuse to embezzle, but even others resolutely refused to accept gifts, resulting in the prime minister being destitute, and even his imperial clothes were worn out and worn, and even the emperor could not look at it anymore, personally advising him to be more or less considerate of himself, and some insignificant corruption, he accepted it.
After hearing this, Lu Yan replied, "As soon as the bribery path is opened, it is thick and thick. Whips and boots will not cease to be clothed; the garments will be untold, and the currency will be bound; the currency will be untold, and the carts will be the same; the carts will be incessant, and the golden bi will be the same. In his view, small gifts cannot help but come, big gifts will come, and refusal to accept bribes should start from a large perspective and start from a small place.
But unfortunately, it was such a virtuous prime minister, every time he faced the dereliction of duty of the imperial court and the emperor, he was arguing on the basis of reason, and he offended many powerful people in the imperial court, and many people ran to Tang Dezong to falsely accuse Lu Zhen of slander, so that Tang Dezong also began to dislike him and exiled him. In the first year of Yongzhen (805), Lu Zhen died in Chungju.